Your Nervous System Called; It Wants A Chill Day With The Help of Somatic Healing

Opening And Purpose

SPEAKER_00

0:00

Today's conversation is for anyone who has ever been told your labs look fine while your body is screaming otherwise. For people living with chronic illness, endometriosis, trauma histories, or just the quiet exhaustion of pushing through, this episode is about listening to the body in a whole new way. We're talking about somatic therapy. What is it? Why it matters, and how healing doesn't always start with fixing, but with feeling safe again. So stick around. Welcome to Indobattery, where I share my journey with endometriosis and chronic illness while learning and growing along the way. This podcast is not a substitute for medical advice, but a supportive space to provide community and valuable information so you never have to face this journey alone. We embrace a range of perspectives that may not always align with our own, believing that open dialogue helps us grow and gain new tools. Join me as I share stories of strength, resilience, and hope. From personal experiences to expert insights. Welcome back to Indobattery. Grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and join me at the table. Today I am joined by Jenna Storr, a professional dancer-turned fascia relief specialist, somatic practitioner, and a Le Coron Bleu trained chef whose work is changing how we understand healing in the body. After a successful career in film, television, and touring, Jenna experienced firsthand how on-processed trauma and physical strain can live on in the body. And that experience reshaped her life's work. Today, she supports high-functioning individuals in regulating their nervous systems, restoring mobility, and reconnecting with their vitality through somatic movement, fascial release, and mindful nourishment. At the core of her work is a powerful reminder that so many of us need to hear. The body already knows how to heal when we learn how to listen. So grab that cup of coffee or tea and help me in welcoming Jenna Stewart to the table. Thank you, Jenna, so much for sitting down with me today. It's an honor and a privilege to have you sit with us and take the time because I know you're so busy. So thank you for doing that. I love it.

SPEAKER_02

2:17

I love it. I love talking. Healing, everything healing.

The Chugacino TSA Saga

SPEAKER_00

2:20

Yes. And before we get started, what is your go-to drink order for the day?

SPEAKER_02

2:26

My go-to drink order. Well, I have become savvy to this renewed chocolate. And it's all the essential mushrooms and cognitive and immunity support. And it's the taste of it is unbelievable. You just put a scoop in your coffee of powder and it's monk fruit. So it's no artificial sweeteners and no added sugar. It's just a monk fruit. Um, but that's my new go-to. And it's kind of funny because I can't not go anywhere without it. So I've got my travel packets, I've got my little jar. Um, so now I've got my boyfriend on it. We're always like, Chugga Chino, Chugga Chino, meet you in the cafe, Chugga Chino. We call our kitchen the cafe.

SPEAKER_01

3:10

And it's fun to say, I know.

SPEAKER_02

3:14

Well, I was traveling a couple weekends ago and I brought my big bag, which had been open, and it went through TSA and it got flagged. And I'm like, why is it being flagged? And he goes, Well, it resembles gunpowder because it was open. So it had remnants of powder on it. And I said, It's a coffee supplement. And he said, I don't have the authority to let you go through. We have to get an expert up here. I'm like, an expert for a coffee supplement? In comes explosives expert to test on a little piece of paper with all these droppers. So it was 30 minutes in TSA, barely got on our flight, and it's like, oh my god, my Chugacino supplement is like starting the trip off really bad.

SPEAKER_00

3:57

I was like, it was at the like I was in my mind when you said that, I thought it was like the mushrooms in it. Like if they didn't, but it was the monk fruit. That's funny.

SPEAKER_02

4:05

Good to know. Nothing to do with mushrooms. Like, and I said there's no hallucinogenic. He said, no, no, no, it's not that. It's the energy of the powder that shows up as like the the fineness, the the texture of it or the grade of powder, it showed up as gum powder.

SPEAKER_00

4:23

So interesting. That's an interesting fact. I'm I'm just gonna chill today with my regular little coffee because I didn't have a cup today. So here we are, gonna have one cup of coffee just because it's my comfort drink more than anything else.

SPEAKER_02

4:40

Yeah, me too. Me too.

SPEAKER_00

4:42

Okay. Well, Jeanette, is uh with that in mind, you've talked about healing and it being something that you really are passionate about and in the way that you treat your body. Can you just give us a brief synopsis of who you are, what you do, and then we'll go from there.

Discovering Somatic Healing And Tools

SPEAKER_02

4:59

Absolutely. Uh, I started as a professional dancer at 16. So I went through a gamut of, you know, pulled muscles, torn ligaments, herniated L4, L5 on a dance scholarship when I was 22. I was told I was supposed to have surgery. I went through doctors, medication, pills. Um, I've been through ablasions, epidurals, I've had two carpal tunnel surgeries on my hands. Um, I had a neck issue that really took me into somatic healing because I went to every pain specialist I could possibly get my hands on. And they were, I was in so much pain, they were injecting like Botox into my neck to try to just give me some relief. I was suicidal at that point because I would wake up in the morning and it was like being in a nightmare day after day after day. I was in so much pain. And I just thought there has to be something else. I can't keep putting chemicals in my body and you know, doctors that tell me things that probably aren't true, like, you know, do this, do that, and you do it, and nothing happens. And um, I was trained in myofascia reliefs many, many years ago because I wanted to help my stomach. I had a cesarean with my daughter. And as a dancer, my core was everything, and that's why my back was weak. And so I found this woman, got trained in myofascia release. So when I had this neck issue, I thought, you know what? I'm I'm already versed in all these healing techniques. Why am I not using them? I was a health coach, I was doing more so weight loss, and I'm a trained chef. So that had been my health coaching for a long time. And then this issue came up with me, and I thought I have to be my best client. And I dove into somatic healing. I was working with therapists here in LA with sexual trauma, trauma release, psychotherapy, evocative therapy. A doctor and I created a podcast called The Sex Matters. We talked about healing with trauma from rape to heartbreak, uh, accidents, car accidents, surgeries that, you know, never felt like they healed, internal IBS. I mean, you name it, we we talked about it. And what I found and what I find with most of my clients is dysregulated nervous system will be the death of you. If you don't learn how to regulate your nervous system, you will cause tremendous illness in your body. And I agree with you. I think the medical industry is necessary for certain things, but our bodies are so capable of healing so much emotionally and physically, and we don't understand the tools that we were given at birth to heal our body. And it's been a real, it's been a fascinating journey for myself because I'm so emotionally and physically regulated that when stuff comes up for me that would send someone off, you know, into a spiral, I'm able to just go, you know, I can do this. I have the tools to do this. And that's why I started doing somatic coaching and trauma release. And, you know, I've been through it and I know I know the capabilities of the body. I've studied with some really tremendously intelligent and forward-thinking pioneers of somatic healing. And it just clicked for me. And now I have no pain. When I feel pain or I feel stress or I feel anxiety, any of those things, I use the tools that I have and I can bring myself back immediately. And it's been a it's just been overwhelming. So I have this urge to help people. You know, I really my calling is to help people understand the capabilities that your body has to heal.

What Somatic Therapy Really Is

SPEAKER_00

9:00

Yeah. For those people hearing the term somatic therapy for the first time, what is it and how does it support trauma release, chronic pain management?

SPEAKER_02

9:10

I call somatic, the term somatic is body. So somatic therapy is understanding body language. What is your body trying to tell you? The pain, pings, the chronic pain, the stress, the neck issue, the back issue, that is your body's messaging to the brain. That is somatic. So it's body focused. If you think about, you know, everybody says brain to body, you know, you're sending your body signals. Somatic healing, somatic therapy is letting your body send the signals to your brain. Right. So the other way around, which is the way that it should be, because your body knows before your brain does.

SPEAKER_01

9:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02

9:50

You know, it's your body is going, I have a feeling, I have, you know, my intuition, my all the things that people think are out here in the ether. It's like, no, it really does exist in there. And it will tell your brain before you even realize it. But most people's brains will shut it down. I'm okay, I don't need to feel this. I can get over it, I can overthink it. But the body has to process emotions. It has to process anger, sadness, grief, guilt, joy, excitement, love. And we tend to shut it down, whether it's good or bad, because if it's good, we're afraid that it's not going to last very long and something bad will happen. So we don't let our body fully process it. If it's bad, it's hard to feel it. We don't want to feel angry. We don't want to feel sad. We don't feel heartbroken. We don't want to feel grief. But in order for the body not to store it as emotional or physical chronic pain, we have to let it process. We have to go, okay, I am really sad. What does sadness feel like? Feel it in your body. Where do you feel it? And then have the tools to release it, which is somatic movement, body movement, breath work. I teach havening now, which is, you know, a holding, a tapping, great for people that have tremendous anxiety and panic, panic attacks. It brings your body into the present moment and it allows you to regulate so that your body goes, I'm safe. Like I'm not in fight or flight. I'm actually safe. Everything is okay right now. And that's what we're missing right now. We're missing that tool of just clicking. How do I regulate? What are my tools that work best for me? And then allowing the body to feel safe so that it releases those emotions.

Letting Emotions Process In The Body

SPEAKER_00

11:37

Yeah. Well, and it's hard when we feel like our bodies have failed us, especially with endometriosis. And because it's not a linear progression of things, you know, we often do feel like it's failing us and the pain is getting worse. And sometimes it's communicating something to us even more. And so I think just for these people in the chronic illness space, for someone with endometriosis who feels betrayed by their bodies, how do you begin to rebuild that trust?

SPEAKER_02

12:04

That's a really good question. It is like going to the gym. It really is. Like you've got to set time aside to listen to your body. You know, whether it be with a coach or a somatic healer, uh, learning how to listen. You know, if I have gut issues, I just think, oh, I'm eating the wrong thing, or it's um predisposed, or it's because I have this or I have this. Well, it could be from something that happened as a child that was never fully processed, parental programming, abusive household that that is now stuck in there. So then think life goes on, you have all these other things compounding in the gut where that initial, like, ugh happened. And now we're we're building on it. It was never allowed to release. I think that when it comes to the first steps of healing, it's knowing how to listen to your body, how to tap in. I I do I start every session with my clients with a body scan and we go through the entire body and we attach emotions to it. So if something comes up for someone, you know, someone with endometriosis, you know, they can probably locate it pretty quickly. And then we're looking into what does it feel like? Can you attach an emotion there? What does that emotion feel like and let it be there? Let it let your body process it. And then we go through breath work with audible exhales, really deep, like primal, tribal audible exhales, because vibration will break up that trauma, especially with myofascia release. You know, when you have an injury or when you hold trauma, it will find a place. So if endometriosis is the main issue, and then a breakup happens, that endometriosis will then the symptoms will be heightened because something outside that is stressful to the body that we're not processing properly is going to find the weak spot in the body and it's going to cause it to become worse.

Rebuilding Trust With A “Betrayed” Body

SPEAKER_00

14:09

So it's almost like, you know, they talk about pain signaling and it being like, you know, you cut your leg one time and it heals, but then you go back and you scrape your leg there. It's not a cut, but it feels like it's cut again. Like you have it's like that wiring in your brain that tells you, uh-oh, something is hurting you again. Same thing. It's like that pattern. Is it common for people to feel like an emotional release, like crying or exhaustion when they first start somatic work? Yes.

unknown

14:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

14:39

Uh specific instance, I have a client who had a very, it was a disruptive childhood. It was an abusive, like emotionally abusive childhood. And when we started to really get into like deeper work with her and childhood memories, she had a she said she felt like there was a rock in her throat and it she couldn't get past it. And so tears and you know, you a lot of people don't like to cry because it's scary. And they're like, I don't want to cry, I don't want to cry. But crying is healing. And so she having this thing, she didn't know she was gonna throw up, she couldn't breathe. And so it's now finding a way to breathe through it, like understand what is there. And it was her mother. This is her mother. She couldn't get her voice out to protect herself as a kid because her mom was so abusive and so dominating that this was stuck and it was still stuck. And we had to find the way to let her feel it, but also be able to go. I'm in the present moment, I'm safe here, and I can let my body feel this in a safe place. And that is how healing begins is to you're scanning the body, you're finding where does a memory come up, where does a traumatic moment come up, and then understanding why it's there and what emotion is there, and now let's move it. And it doesn't happen in one session. A lot of people things are so suppressed, especially sexual trauma, it's some people don't even know that it's there.

SPEAKER_01

16:16

Yeah.

Body Scans, Breath, And Fascia Work

SPEAKER_02

16:17

You have to like really sit in it and and do some really deep work. But to kind of cap your question on how do people start to heal, it has to be like a want, a real want. You know, which your mind says, like, I want to lose weight. Well, you can try here and there, and you know, maybe, and then you're like, whoops, it didn't work, whatever. But healing is no, I am going to heal this. I am going to make the choice to do this for myself and commit to it because it's hard for people. It is really hard to pull up past feelings or store trauma. You know, the body is just trying to protect us. We're constantly in fight or flight. And I would imagine that an endometriosis has a lot to do with that, is people who are not processing past trauma, the body is just so tight and constriction and all the organs are constricted that the body's not allowing itself to heal. It's not allowing it to do its job because the brain's going, no, you stay tight. You stay, you know, you got to protect me.

SPEAKER_00

17:21

Yeah. How is this different from just doing stretching and yoga? And, you know, because I'm sure people are thinking, well, I can just like, you know, be calm, be within myself and do yoga. How is this different? Is it addressing it more like head-on?

SPEAKER_02

17:33

I it's almost like a hypnotic state of visualization. So you have to learn how to go into your body and be in your body because we can float like a meditation, you know, it's so hard to meditate, you know, people's thoughts. Like, I can't meditate because it's just I can't be quiet. And then I have all these thoughts, all these things. But a body meditation, a body scan is actually going in and feeling the tip of my right big toe. I can feel my right big toe right now. And then we move through every toe, every the ball of your foot, the arch of your foot, the heel of your foot. You know, we get up into the hip and the womb, and that's where a lot of people go, yeah, there it is for women a lot. A lot. And that could be just from having a child, natural childbirth or cesarean section. Their womb has held so much trauma from childbirth. But we go, oh, it's natural and it's fine, you heal and everything's good, and you have another child. Well, the trauma that your body goes through to deliver a child, let alone be cut open and a child pulled out while you're numb.

SPEAKER_01

18:43

Right.

SPEAKER_02

18:44

You know, the body never got to process that. Number one, because it was, you know, an epidural was given, or, you know, the I would say probably the best or the the women who don't experience a lot of trauma in the womb are women that have natural childbirth in a water bath. The body is allowing them to feel the things that all the natural components are there. The body is processing properly.

SPEAKER_01

19:11

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00

19:12

You talked about one of the huge misunderstandings is that healing comes from the outside. And this is powerful because many of the people listening, I'm sure, have been through surgeries, medications, dismissal, and internalized the idea that they're the problem. Like this is this is my problem, that I'm the one causing this. And we do hear this a lot. It's like, well, if you hadn't have eaten this food, or if you hadn't done this, if you'd taken care of yourself, if you'd gone X, Y, and Z. So we hear this all the time. And that in and of itself causes a lot of trauma for us. How do you help someone reframe symptoms as protection rather than failure?

Emotional Release And Safety In Practice

SPEAKER_02

19:53

Again, your body is communicating body language. So if you're feeling something, that isn't just because you ate something or you're not doing something, you're not lifting enough, you're not taking the right supplements. That is your body saying, Hey, I need, I need you to look at this, I need you to feel this. And we don't, we're we're not taught to look at and listen to our bodies like that. It's like you go exterior for a pill, a doctor, a procedure, surgery. And I, you know, like I said, I do agree when it's necessary, it's necessary. I mean, I've had carpal tunnel, I've had, you know, I've done nerve lasions, I've had cesarean, you know, but the body has to heal as much as it possibly can on its own.

SPEAKER_01

20:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02

20:40

When we start injecting all these opinions, you think, you know, you have four different doctors telling you four different things, and your body's all like, I don't know, and I'm just gonna stay ill because I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_01

20:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

20:55

So it is a language that has to be learned. And that is really sitting and feeling into your body where do I feel things? Where, what emotion do I feel? We don't do that, you know. You can go to a head therapist, you can go to a massage therapist, you can go to a pelvic floor therapist, you can do all these things that will help you feel things and do things. But how often do we just sit with our body and go, okay, I'm listening to you right now. Tell me, like, what are you feeling? Let's feel this.

SPEAKER_01

21:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02

21:28

And cry, laugh, yawn, scream, you know, get it out. It's such a concept that people don't believe in. And I am a living, I'm living proof that I know that it works. Right. People that I work with know that it works now.

SPEAKER_01

21:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

21:46

It's not something that you have to keep, you know, paying for, or you learn the tools. And then the practice is to keep doing this for yourself so that your body can heal. It can take on new sadness, grief, anger, all of the thing, and be able to go, oh, that that was sadness. Painful. But I know what sadness feels like. My body's capable of feeling sadness.

SPEAKER_00

22:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

22:13

And letting it go.

SPEAKER_00

22:15

Yeah. For those that are listening who need medical intervention because of the disease, many of us will. How does somatic therapy and medical care coexist instead of compete?

SPEAKER_02

22:26

Well, I would say a lot of Western medicine doctors don't know the word somatic. They don't, that's not what they studied. It's not in the books yet. Right. But what I would suggest to someone who is wanting natural healing and then wanting like a real doctor for a real physical condition that needs attention is to work with the two independently and see what see what's happening naturally while options are coming about for, you know, a surgery or a procedure that could help that has been proven to help certain conditions. But the problem is that we look to doctors to tell us what's happening in our bodies. We're not listening to our bodies. We're letting someone else tell us. And so the healing part is yes, I can bring someone in and help them understand that, you know, they may need a surgery. But let's get your body to a regulated place so that when it goes into surgery, it can heal properly. It can be in a place where it's not so wound up that now you have more trauma from surgery. And now your body is in worse shape than it was. You know, how many times you hear people have had one, two, three back surgeries and they still have back problems?

SPEAKER_01

23:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02

23:54

Because they weren't allowed to heal going into it and they weren't allowed to heal after it. So they went, well, that didn't work. Now I got to do another one.

SPEAKER_00

24:02

Yeah.

Working With Medicine Without Losing Yourself

SPEAKER_02

24:03

So it's giving the body space to naturally heal before jumping into something that could be more traumatic and cause more problems.

SPEAKER_00

24:12

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think so many of us don't want to sit in a space where we listen to our bodies because it's betrayed us so much. Yes. And I think what gets hard about this and is that we have repeated pain a lot of times. So because it's so cyclical for a lot of people, they're experiencing on a month-to-month basis this you're already, you know, it inflames every month due to your cycle a lot of times, right? So we're having this repeated pain month after month, and it reinforces these stress patterns. Can the body come out of that stuck trauma response? 100%.

SPEAKER_02

24:50

It's ready. It's a cycle, it's called a cycle for a reason because it, you know, it repeats, obviously. But you can change how that cycle happens. So if I know that in two days the buildup's coming and I'm going to be in a lot of pain, I can start doing somatic release so that my body can relax. It can be, you know, in a regulated state for then what is to come. But if the body's already braced for it subconsciously, because it knew from last month that that's what happened. So, oh, here it comes again. Your body again is in a dysregulated state, and now it's taking on these symptoms and causing more compounded trauma and stress and pain, I'm sure. I I pulled this up because this is a yoga ball, soft yoga ball, and this is what I use for gut fascia release. And I did a uh seminar for young dancers, and this we did some gut work, and I had a couple of the girls say that they had cramps that day. And after doing this, their cramps were gone. And if you think about when your body contracts, your uterus contracts, you're about to, you know, enter into your cycle, everything is gripping. You like on this and you breathe, and it expands your fascia, it allows your organs to relax into your body and your breath is moving energy, and everything is now in a regulated state. When a period comes or a cycle comes or pain symptoms come, your body can go, oh, there it is. But I regulated versus, you know, it's like if you gripped yourself because you knew you were gonna be hit, the hurt is going to be intensified. If you know, loosen your body, like they say, when for people that jump out of planes, if you know that your chute's not going to open, let your body go loose. Don't because that's how you cause more injury. It's learning to be loose and allow things to come through your body so that there isn't more injury. There isn't more stress to the body.

Anticipatory Pain And Cycle Regulation

SPEAKER_00

27:03

Right, right. And and this is, I mean, for someone like me, it sometimes that feels like that's easier said than done when you've had years and years. And you have lesions that have already formed and grown. So that in and of itself is painful. But what I'm hearing more so is that there is a way to help your body release some of that that's already built up, but also support not getting further into that fight and flight, not getting more into that chronic pain, tension, and your body holding on to even more than it's already done. It's kind of like, you know, piling on more trash in a trash can type of thing without emptying it. Yeah, it doesn't solve the problem.

SPEAKER_02

27:45

It's a band-aid, you know, right like to take a pill, do an injection. Yeah, those are band-aids.

SPEAKER_00

27:51

Yeah, yeah. For people that are already exhausted, because let's be honest, we all are life is is hard. What are the simplest daily practices that truly support resilience and longevity when you're talking about somatic therapy?

SPEAKER_02

28:07

Well, waking up in the morning and asking your body to tell you what it needs for the day. So, does it need more sleep? Does it need more nutrients? You know, if you've had a night drinking and you wake up instead of just going right into coffee and work and stress, like asking the body, like, what do you need today? I'm listening and I'm supportive. Let's, you know, let's think about this the state that we're in and support that state because every day it changes.

SPEAKER_01

28:39

Yeah.

Simple Daily Somatic Habits

SPEAKER_02

28:39

Going to bed at night, I say if you can just shake, you know, really shake and like move the body, move energy, because if you've had a stressful day and then you go to bed and you wake up and you do it all over again, you are compounding trauma on your body over and over again, and there is no release. So, yes, you can do yoga, which is very helpful. Meditation does help, but somatic movement, body movement, anything, jumping on a rebounder is amazing for somatic healing. You can do havening where you're actually like touching the body, and the body knows like I'm in the chest. So if I have, you know, TMJ, like and I'm tapping here, I can't be thinking about what my day is tomorrow if I'm doing this. I'm actually communicating with my body. Like I know that my jaw is tight and it hurts. God, there's so many things. You know, I do my boyfriend had plantar fasciitis. He has terrible feet. This is a neuroball. This has saved his life. He had a hard time getting up and standing on his feet. And this just rolling his feet five minutes in the morning. He goes to the gym, he has no foot pain. You know, it doesn't mean that his feet are like miraculously healed, but he's starting to listen to what his feet need. And now he's just a day. We take these balls everywhere. I've got like 10 of them in the house. We're sitting, we're watching TV. He's rolling, he's drinking coffee, he's rolling, he's got one under his desk, he's rolling. It's incorporating all these little micro habits that help the body to regulate because it knows it's being heard. Because your body, if you're not listening to it, it is going to send you signals until it takes you down.

SPEAKER_01

30:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02

30:25

This is my mom as a perfect example. She's 78 and the woman is riddled in pain, back pain, hip pain, she had carpal tunnel. You know, I thought, God, I hope to God this isn't predisposed because she has tried everything, every surgery, surgeon. Oh, I'm seeing this. I got an MRI. And then when I got into somatic work and looking at trauma healing, and I look back at her life, the amount of trauma that she has not processed is unfathomable. I mean, her brother committed suicide. And at the funeral, I sat next to my mom and she didn't shed a tear. And I said, Mom, are you gonna process this? And she said, if I open the floodgates, I won't stop. So she she just chose not to. So she holds that in her body and then wonders why she's in so much pain. You know, she can't sleep because her neck and her back, and it's just she's set in her ways. I've tried, you know. Yeah, you get to a certain point and you're like, it's it's useless. Like uh, it's I'm just helpless. Like, I I can't. Like they would never older people don't go, oh, somatic eating. It's like not in their wheelhouse.

SPEAKER_01

31:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

31:34

So trying to get people to jump in wherever they are, whatever age they are now, it's never too late to start a conversation with your body.

SPEAKER_00

31:44

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think for chronic illness listeners, this often shows up as grief, right? Grieving the body they used to have, or the version of themselves they were before the illness or before it got so bad. How do people redefine success when their body changes?

SPEAKER_02

32:04

It's it's difficult for people. I think for me, I had to hit rock bottom because I tried everything and I just went, you know what? Like let's try this. And then it was like I hit gold, struck struck oil, you know. I think it's people have to be open, they just have to surrender to gotta change something. Like somatic healing is not just body, it changes the way the brain thinks about the body, it changes the way it fires signals, it changes neuroplasticity, it changes the whole composition of the brain. So, you know, people when they start to get into somatic healing, suddenly things don't, they don't want to do things that are damaging to their body.

SPEAKER_01

32:52

Right.

Unprocessed Trauma And Family Patterns

SPEAKER_02

32:53

They start being considerate of their body. So, like, you know, I used to love wine. I just I love wine. And now I go, my body doesn't like it. Listening to my body versus like my brain going, you want to drink that glass of Bordeaux that is so rare, you know. I just go, Yeah. No, my my body's in control and it doesn't want it because it knows. Yeah. Yeah. How you know we think we have to start thinking about what does my body want and not letting the brain talk you out of it.

SPEAKER_00

33:26

Yeah, yeah. You talk about building a life operating system, right? You're you're talking about how to really understand your operating system in a and the way that your body is operating. What does that mean in a way that feels doable, not overwhelming? Because to some, this feels like another step and it it's all these things that we have to try to accomplish. Check off this list. It's you know, the that type of thing. Can we make it doable where it's not overwhelming and causing more stress?

SPEAKER_02

33:53

If you think about like a basic, you know, a basic plan. So a life operating system is emotional, physical, financial. And you can start with little changes that are non-negotiables. So, you know, for me, like the wine is that's a non-negotiable for me. I won't drink a bottle of wine because I know it's good wine. I just go, that's a non-negotiable. I don't do those things anymore because I know that my body is not, it's not gonna, it's gonna react negatively. You know, financial stuff. I don't blow money on things that don't bring me joy. You know, that is one thing. Like, does this pair of very expensive glasses do they bring me joy? Are they gonna really make my life different? No. And then my brain started to get into like minimalist thinking like, do I does that work for me? And then suddenly my finances are, you know, different. And I'm able to invest and buy a house. And it's like a life operating system is really writing down boundaries for yourself and what you will do and what you won't do, and then abiding by your own rules. And it's really important in emotion the emotional context of your life is personal boundaries around your relationships. What will you tolerate in a relationship? What will you tolerate in a relationship at work, your coworkers, your boss, your parents, you know, a lot of people? It's just got shit coming at them all the time. And then think about what that does to your gut.

SPEAKER_01

35:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

35:28

And then if you have any sort of condition, you know, pre-existing condition, and now you're letting people dump their emotions and feelings on you, is that a system that works? No.

SPEAKER_01

35:41

Right.

Redefining Success As Your Body Changes

SPEAKER_02

35:42

And so little micro changes in like really looking at emotional, physical, and financial. What are my what's my bar, you know, non-negotiables for myself right now? They don't have to be big ones. Just and then every year, like I do a life audit with my clients, like, okay, it's the beginning of the year. Let's audit emotional, physical, financial. And what are now what's a new layer that we can put on the on what we've done in the past to now look at getting even better health-wise, emotional-wise, relationship-wise, financially. You know, we just kind of cruise through life and go, oh, I'm in a lot of pain and I have a shitty relationship. And, you know, that's not a life operating system. That is fight or flight, survival, disease, you name it, it's there.

SPEAKER_00

36:29

Yeah. I mean, there's so much to unpack with it because I mean, we can unpack even more than this, but one, you know, a lot of us are overachievers and and like to ignore pain because we don't want to give up on the daily life that it could, you know, affect. And so if there is one red flag that you see for those high achiever people that they should stop and reassess, what is a red flag that you would say that would first pop up?

SPEAKER_02

36:55

Lack of sleep.

SPEAKER_00

36:56

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02

36:57

Insomnia, like or you know, I only sleep three hours. I'm fine. No, you are not. You are telling yourself a lie, and your body is exhausted and you are burning out. Injury. If you are prone to injury, um, that's a big one because I see a lot of people who don't sleep have a injury because they're floating up in their brain just trying to get through the day because they haven't slept. And now they have they've rolled their ankle, they've gotten into a car accident, um, you know, they've cut their finger, like anything, lack of sleep is a really a big one.

SPEAKER_00

37:33

Interesting. That would have not probably been the first one that I ever would have thought of, but that does make a lot of sense for sure. We talk a lot about food being an issue for endometriosis. We've talked about this before with the gut. You're you were talking about IBS from a nutritional standpoint, because we're conscious of like how trauma has formed around what we've eaten. And what nutritional support helps the emotional resilience?

Building A Life Operating System

SPEAKER_02

38:00

You know, it's different for everyone. I do believe in blood type eating.

SPEAKER_01

38:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

38:08

For me, I have an O blood type. I crave iron. I am anemic if I don't eat meat. And that's a huge problem for me. So understanding your blood type and what works with your blood type is really important. But, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, I don't care, you know. But if you want to get better, if you want your body to, you know, optimize energy and and and be, you know, sustainable, um, that's really important. Hydration. You know, I mean, it kills me that like we never thought of bottled water or carrying water around with us when we were kids. It was like you drink out of a hose and oh, I'm thirsty, I'll have to choke, or I'll have a glass of milk. It's like, what? And you know, a lot of people still to this day, it's like, have you drank water today? Like, no, you know, they go straight to coffee in the morning, they're not hydrating. Um, you know, all your cells are like shriveling up, and now you have stress coming at you. So you're like, okay, I'm dehydrated, I'm hungry, I'm tired. You know, you see the vicious cycle of just like, you know. But again, those are little micro that is a life operating system. I go to bed at this time, I turn my phone off at this time, I drink, you know, a large glass of water as soon as I wake up. But those are not hard things to start with.

SPEAKER_00

39:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

39:27

And they will make huge changes.

SPEAKER_00

39:29

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's so much that we could unpack. I mean, I I feel like we are just touching the surface on so much of this. So much of this. But if there's one thing that you could tell someone that is living in a chronic illness body, especially on their hardest days, what would it be?

SPEAKER_02

39:47

That it's not on a sentence. This isn't this is not how you have to live. That, you know, you can the body can heal. And, you know, a lot of chronic pain is emotionally related. It's not because you're physically doing something that's causing you pain or you're not exercising enough, or it is usually trauma that has caused emotional pain and it has found a place in the body, and now it is chronic pain. So that's that's where it has to start. And that's really it's hard, it's hard for people, but they don't want to bring up emotional stuff. But that is where the body starts to heal.

High Achievers’ Red Flag: Sleep

SPEAKER_00

40:29

Yeah. Well, and I think, you know, a lot of us in the endometriosis space here, it's all in not all in your head or whatever, but you haven't dealt with the trauma and the pain. And I think that there might be elements of truth to that. It can't be a scapegoat completely for everyone that has severe disease, especially deep infiltrating disease, but it could be a tool for a lot of people to heal parts that haven't been dealt with, maybe alleviating some of these symptoms and pain that you're dealing with on a consistent basis. Not saying that you don't have any pain, but this is such a great way for people to have an extra tool in their tool belt to be able to identify what is really hurting versus it's just trauma response pain where everything hurts. It's radiating pain. Um, I can't tell one way or the other because this is what it's felt like my whole life. And so what you're talking about, and what I and what I'm hearing is that this is a way for us to help our bodies heal while also identifying other ways that it needs more attention. And and that's allowing us the space to do so. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

41:39

Your own doctor, you know, your own somatic practitioner is, you know, if my body is tight and stressed, and you know, endometriosis is going to feel a thousand times worse.

SPEAKER_00

41:53

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. And this is a cue. You're not lazy, you're not broken, your body is not failing you. It's been protecting you the best way it knows how, right? And so learning to listen may be one of the most radical forms of healing that we have. Absolutely. Janet, thank you so much for taking the time. I'm learning so much about this, and I feel like we could probably unpack about three or four hours more of this. Probably. Totally. Well, that's like we might need to revisit this again.

SPEAKER_01

42:21

Sure. For sure.

SPEAKER_00

42:23

But thank you so much for taking the time. I know that in a day that gets so busy and overwhelming, it can be hard to sit down and take that time. But thank you for doing it.

SPEAKER_02

42:31

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00

42:32

Well, until next time, everyone, continue advocating for you and for others.